(It was "Deacon's Preach" weekend, so this is Deacon Bill Brigg's homily)

As we continue our series on Groundbreaking week 5 we will be taking a look at (no pun intended) Groundbreaking vision. From the time John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan…and Jesus began His public ministry…He had a groundbreaking vision. This vision… Jesus passed on to his Apostles…to us and to His disciples by virtue of our baptism. While Jesus was suffering dying on the cross…out of love for us…He said, “I thirst”. It was not a physical thirst He was talking about…it was a spiritual thirst. He was commissioning us…all of us…as His disciples…to quench His thirst for love and for souls. It is the groundbreaking vision of His church…and what Jesus is asking of us as His church. Through the Holy Spirit… the Apostles and the early disciples understood this…but as Jesus had predicted, they also knew it was not going to be easy as we hear in the first reading today from the Acts of the Apostles. They endured ridicule…hostility… and even rejection. At one point, Paul was thrown out of the city…stoned…and left for dead. But when Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, they did not report on their injuries…or about how difficult it was. Their report is all about how God has used them and worked through them to change and to transform lives in new parts of the world. God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

You know, when God opens a door…nobody shuts it, and when God shuts a door…nobody can open it. When God opens a door for us, our job is to walk through it. Paul did. God kept opening doors for him and he kept walking through them. After his missionary journey…as hard as it was…he didn’t sit back and rest, he didn’t lick his wounds and say, “You know what…I’m done…I did my part…it’s time for somebody else to go out there and give it a shot. Paul had caught a glimpse of what God was doing through him and in the world and he wasn’t going to miss out on it. He went back again and again. He went out on two more major missionary journeys and eventually laid down his life for the vision…he very much had been a part of it.

God is opening doors for us all the time…and it is our job to keep walking through them…because an open door is not a sign that the work is done…a sign that we’re nearing the end. An open door is a sign that we are standing on the verge of something big…that we are standing at the threshold of something truly groundbreaking. We’ve got to keep giving…keep serving…keep praying…keep extending those invitations…keep stepping out in faith…we’ve got to keep moving because there’s more that God wants to do here…through his church…and through every one of us.

At the end of every mass, except during Easter week, I say “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord”. I am not saying that we have to preach to everyone we meet…but just perform little acts of mercy and kindness. Just smiling and saying good morning to someone…helping a mother in need with small children, with her groceries or chores…helping a friend study for a test…listening to someone who just needs someone to listen to them…following the command that Jesus asked of us, “Love one another as I have loved you”.

Jesus’ vision for us as His church is to go beyond our own little church community…to step out of our comfort zone and reach out to others. Perhaps you’re thinking to yourself, God doesn’t need me…I have nothing to offer…what difference could I make? There is no gift too small to God. It’s about giving more of our hearts to God…investing in His kingdom…giving yourself to something that’s bigger than ourselves…and it’s never too late to start. This groundbreaking vision can stand as a hopeful sign that worldwide faith in Christ is still possible…that God is still at work through us and with us…and He still uses the church to change hearts and lives…and we are the church. This building…this house of God…is a meeting place for sharing our faith and vision of Christ. When we leave this building…we take God with us.

One of my favorite verses in the bible is, “Where your treasure lies, there your heart will also be”. So if your treasure lies with money…there your heart will be. If your treasure lies with material possessions…there your heart will be. If your treasure lies with anything else but God…there is no room in your heart for God. GOD IS OUR ONE TRUE TREASURE. This is God’s groundbreaking vision for us…to love Him and to trust in His mercy…to know that He is with us…through it all…through all the open doors…all the joyful and painful times…even when we think He has abandoned us…He is with us…even till the end of time. Anger and rebelling against the church is the work of the evil one. So do we want to follow the vision of the evil one…or the vison of our Good and all-knowing God?